This TR is mostly words. I had a fucked up morning but it ended up fantastic.
Left the house bright and squirrelly after checking PH and chlorine in our inflatable pool as to not burn my childs skin whilst im gone. Great big Golden stonezzizlle.
(https://i.imgur.com/mVF7LPV.jpg)
Still a good omen.
Tied some bright floaties last night in prep for brookies. i was debating between two streams, and even on my ride didnt know which i would visit.
(https://i.imgur.com/0zTEMIj.jpg)
Drove every road crossing on creek 1, and really none of it looked good or legal for that matter. Made the game time decision to venture over to creek two. Same deal, posted signs everywhere, sketch parking, weird neighbors. Finally found a pull off that looked ok near the parkway, and did the damn thing. Fucking bust, fished 1/4 mile or more of horrible stream with not even a fish spooked. Decided to head west and see if i could find something juicy. Crossed a crick with decent parking in a semi-remote spot and decided to start again. Didnt even know the name of it. Dropped in and first pool produced a 5" brook. Figured this for brown water. It was lower gradient, lots of sand/silt and undercut banks. I caught 3 fish, all dinky and not picture worthy, before falling in. It was subtle, feet slipped, pulled all the leaves off the rhodo branch i was holding, and there i lay in 3' of water...baptized.
Phone and keyfob survived, i obviously did too. At this point i was ready to call it a day at 945 and gtfo. Pool above looked nice so i kept going. This mostly flowed with woods on one side and a grown up field on the other. Started seeing others bootprints and figured thats why the fishing wasnt so hot. Then the canopy opened up and i was standing at a monstrous pool, had to be 6' deep or more and 35 ft wide. Clipped off the dry and tossed on a big golden stone nymph. It couldnt get down enough in the fast current so i tied on the largest split shot i had and tried my best catapulting it with the 2wt. It was ugly, but didnt matter. 4th drift i felt the pull and i thought for sure i had a big boss brown. When it hit the sun i realized it was a brook, the biggest wild one id ever seen. Netted using my hat with my legs shaking, 12.5".
(https://i.imgur.com/d2IbyWr.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/XqKonOV.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2KMdY8M.jpg)
Called Graybuns and deduced he had fished that pool two days before, so those were his bootprints. Celebrated with a touch of blue ridge goodness...
(https://i.imgur.com/t4Q7zEj.jpg)
...and found the second tick in two days attached.
Wowie.....now that is a great fish.
Thanks Fred, what's the line class record for 4x?
Good lord, thats a monster.
Awesome fish!
Not sure that a hat is a legal landing device
solid
Hell yeah
My Gawd, what a brook trout! V:;
'c; Gawd--Helluva brook
JT
all that and you couldn't take a half decent picture p;-
V:; Look at you hitting the brookie streams hard. 12" fish in Northern/western Virginia, nice fish. 12" fish where you were, heck yeaha.
nice, but did you tear the maxillary on that fish? :o
Man, that's a hell of a native!
Erik the stud, with a stud feesh. :cheers
So proud of you d:b
What a hoss!